Bigelow Employee Involvement Continues to Grow with “EIT” Green Team
Bigelow Tea Green teams continue to grow and expand as we
welcome our newest Employee Involvement Team (EIT) including Ken
Gerber, Terri Hamilton, Esther Fildes and Nancy Bostic who will
guide Bigelow Green efforts in the Boise Plant.
Our Goals
- Identify and implement green initiatives that achieve waste
reduction and energy savings; reducing overhead costs.
- Increase employee awareness and knowledge through training
programs and educational.
How We Are Accomplishing Our
Goals
Waste Reduction
- Added plastic recycling stations in the lunch room in addition
to the cans and paper that are already recycled. We are averaging
about 2 garbage bags of plastic per month while reducing overall
daily garbage can usage from three cans to one.
- The Boise Plant will conduct a minimum of one recycling drive
per trimester, possibly
two.
- o "Mixed Paper" Recycling drive in
April 2010 to occur throughout the year. Employees will be
encouraged to bring in all recyclable paper from home (excluding
cardboard, phone books) on the day of the event. All recyclable
paper will be weighed and the employee bringing in the most paper,
by weight, will win a $25 gift card; the 2nd place
winner will receive 2 movie tickets.
- o Next planned recycling drive will
support Aluminum Can recycling.
- Planning to buy each employee a re-useable water bottle to cut
down on plastic waste and will possibly implement this with our
Water Conservation presentation.
- The EIT Green team will be visiting Western Recycling
to get more information on their recycling processes, such as
recycling plastic wrap.
Energy Savings
- Participate in the local "Idaho
Power" Demand Response Program this
summer.
This is a voluntary power reduction program for businesses
to reduce power during the summer when power is in
peak demand. The Plant will receive notification for a need to
reduce power and will assess and shut down our equipment for 2 to 4
hours during peak hours. This program helps to keep Idaho
Power from having to build additional power plants just
to be able to meet the unusual demand spikes. By managing the
peak down, there is a substantial
Employee Awareness and Knowledge
- In November, 2009, Allied Waste visited our Boise
Plant and conducted a presentation on Recycling. It was very
educational, and provided excellent information on recycling at
home & work.
- Idaho Power to provide a presentation to all employees
on energy education and power conservation in the home and at
work.
- United Water to provide a presentation on general
Water Conservation